'Spencer' Review
R: Some language
Runtime: 1 Hr and 51 Minutes
Production Companies: Komplizen Film, Fabula Shoebox Films, FilmNation Entertainment
Distributor: Neon
Director: Pablo Larraín
Writer: Steven Knight
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Jack Farthing, Sean Harris, Sally Hawkins
Release Date: November 5, 2021
In Theaters Only
December 1991. The marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles has long since grown cold. Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at the Queen's Sandringham Estate. There's eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game. But this year, things will be profoundly different. Spencer is an imagining of what might have happened during those few fateful days.
We gotta make a tradition of having one film per year where Kristen Stewart plays a woman in emotional distress, straight-up not having a good time during Christmas. I mean, we had one around the same time last year with Happiest Season and now we got Spencer, the latest film from one of the best and most daring filmmakers in the business, Pablo Larraín (No, Jackie, Ema).
If there’s anything the Chilean director loves to do, it’s delivering bio dramas using a major historical event in a prolific female figure’s life and using that as a basis to explore their psyche at the height of their biggest mess. While Jackie was more of a closed-knit traditional bio-drama, Larraín gets pretty daring with Spencer. At the start of the film, it’s prefaced that this “is a fable based on a tragedy,” as means to say that this is his revisionist historical film. If you’re expecting a normal biopic, that ain’t here, for *Phoebe Waller-Bridge voice* this is a horror movie. From the moment Princess Diana enters the Queen’s Sandringham Estate, Larraín puts you through her mental state during the most arduous turning point of her life. Whereas shows like The Crown kiss major ass to the royal family, Larraín, and screenwriter Steven Knight –– I know, the dude who wrote friggin’ Serenity –– get on a pedestal and say, “Fuck ‘em” by displaying a ghastly ambiance for this gaslighting royal family.
As the film delves into the emotional isolation Diana suffers from, facing the repercussions of the scandal her cheating husband Prince Charles (Jack Farthing) caused, your claustrophobia sets in as she becomes a prisoner of this high-class royalty. Throughout the film, you feel as if she’s suffocating from the interactions she has with just about everyone, from her royal family in-laws, the chefs, and the new security detail that keeps her locked inside (Timothy Spall, who side-eyes her like a warden). The only form of solace she has is Maggie (Sally Hawkins), her one intimate friend who treats her like a human being and gives her validation. There’s so much pressure from the media while she has to play the game, sacrificing her well-being in an environment where everybody is gaslighting the hell out of her. You know, like Meghan Markle… or Kristen Stewart in Happiest Season. As the chokehold of this cold atmosphere intensifies, you find yourself suffocating alongside Diana.
There’s no way to review this movie without discussing Kristen Stewart’s performance. Needless to say… pack it up, everyone. She’s getting that Best Actress award. Hook, line, and sinker, this is the best leading actress performance I’ve seen in 2021 and is a career-best performance for Kristen Stewart. Her performance as Diana feels like a complete transformation into her highest form of power after years of increasing her skill set as a performer. Ever since Clouds of Sils Maria, Stewart has been working her damndest through indie features to become a standout performer. Even if the films she starred in were lacking in quality (i.e. Seberg), she still elevated these films with her committed performance. Through Diana, Kristen Stewart provides a strong portrayal of depression and loneliness that is subtle yet expressive. Her impeccable accent is as seamless as her facial expressions, which feels more like an embodiment of Diana rather than Kristen just performing. I was swept by how Stewart does that restrained crying you do when emotions are high and you don’t want others to see you break. It’s so real and it allows Diana to be depicted as a human rather than just a tragic figure. When the film takes daring leaps to express the heightened pressure Diana has to face and her dark mental state, Stewart soars to breathtaking new heights alongside the film.
Every other facet of Spencer is remarkable, bringing you close to Diana’s psychological state and her emotions while evoking a cold dread. The score from Jonny Greenwood is a beautiful blend of blaring horns and discordant strings that create an unnerving atmosphere. The set design is immaculate and puts on an artful high-class display. Cinematographer Claire freaking Mathon, who did both Atlantiques and Portrait of a Lady on Fire, somehow combines the haunting ambiance of the former and the classy and vacant spacing of the latter to deliver a personalized execution of the two. Her dizzying cinematography puts you right in Diana’s headspace, emphasizing the claustrophobia she feels while going above and beyond to deliver a ghastly feel in her framework to make this lonely woman occupy the same space in that manner.
I’ve seen Spencer twice now, and yeah, this is one of the year’s best pictures bar none. For Larraín, it’s far bolder and more haunting than the likes of Jackie, even though they are two separate films with their own style and atmosphere. It poetically explores the titular lead’s mortality in an existential and psychologically horrific approach that feels organic when introduced and is executed with profound precision. Upon my first viewing, I was a little out of sorts because it was 10 AM at TIFF and I was already 10 movies deep into the festival. But after a second viewing, I’d say this is one of the best films of this year by a wide margin. Get that Oscar, Kristen. We’re all rooting for you.
